Nowhere To Hide

It's been only a few years since South Korea emerged from martial law, so there's something eerily fascistic about a movie so amnesiac and ahistorical as to celebrate the wanton lawlessness and extreme violence of the homicide division of the Seoul police department. A murder in the city gives these cops a cheap excuse for running wild with sticks and bats, and this includes detective partners Kim and Woo, who race about on a 72-day blood-shower chase to capture the killer. Woo, of course, is named for Hong Kong filmmaker John Woo, and his partner might as well have been called Quentin. Lee Myung-Se's film is prime post-Tarantino mixed with moments of homage to Dirty Harry and an operatic climax in the rain swiped from spaghetti Westerns. But mostly Nowhere to Hide is ultra-mod: slo-mo, fast-mo, computer games, and music-video cutting, slick and shiny. Those who like this sort of low-on-content thing (mostly young viewers who swear by Hong Kong cinema) will have a razzle-dazzle good time. At the Brattle.

-- Gerald Peary